Follow the lines

Terrible photo i'm afraid but if you look closely you can make out the tiles in the small guest bathroom. The colour is called "Woodpigeon," oh dear, how pretentious is that? Anyway, all the tiles have been designed to fit perfectly together by the architect - 20x20 floor tiles, 10x10 floor tiles in the shower, 10x20 wall tiles.
We've always assumed that a professional tiler would look at these patterns and think, "oh, ok, no sweat." Here in the south of France though, things are a little more old-fashioned and haphazard and the notion of matching lines up appears to be revolutionary, even dangerous. Also the carreleurs lay the floor-tiles and, much to our surprise, a completely other team, the faienceurs, do the walls!
The sound of sucking teeth in a jobsworthy way has been whistling through the house over the past few days, but when all the tilers were finally persuaded that we really meant it and matching everything up might be a good thing, they took to it like canards to eau and have produced the most beautiful, precise job. They seem absolutely thrilled by what they've done - all smiles, surprise and pride - and we are too.